Community Grants

Of community, by community, for community

For decades, community groups and nonprofit organizations throughout the Northwest have worked to advance equity and justice for LGBTQ+ communities in every corner of our region. Our Community Grants Program helps fuel this work through providing consistent, long-term funding.  

Since this program’s inception in 1987, we have awarded nearly $12 million dollars. Our most recent award cycle in 2021 was the largest in Pride Foundation’s history—$1,834,000 to 105 incredible organizations over two years.

In 2021, we shifted to a proactive grantmaking model for this program, and began awarding funds without an application process. These programmatic changes were intentional shifts to center racial justice in our work, improve the experience of grantee partners, and align our grantmaking with our organizational priorities to move resources to LGBTQ+ communities most impacted by injustice.

As Pride Foundation’s only multi-year grantmaking program at this time, our next Community Grants Program award cycle will be the summer/fall of 2023. You can sign up for our email list to receive notification of the new grants cycle at that time.

We encourage groups interested in applying for funding now to check out our Community Care Fund. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to grants@pridefoundation.org

Need timely funding to care for our communities?

Check out our Community Care Fund
Community Care Fund

We prioritize funding for LGTBQ+ groups and organizations that are:

  1. Serving Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC), and whose leadership* reflects these communities. Within these groups, we will especially prioritize those focused on:
    1. Trans women and femmes 
    2. Non-binary/non-conforming/gender diverse folks
    3. Immigrants 
    4. Disabled people/People with Disabilities
    5. Elders
      *We define leadership as: In positions with decision making power. This could mean that the majority of an organization’s staff leadership team (i.e. Directors/Executive Director) and/or the majority of its board members.
  2. Innovatively supporting communities when or where nobody else is, especially:
    1. Grassroots organizations and groups that were started with love, energy, and resources by the people who the organization is set up to serve. We believe in supporting the people closest to the issues to be empowered to create the solutions for themselves.
    2. Efforts and services happening outside of major urban areas 
    3. Work that is creatively reimagining what it means to provide direct services
    4. Organizations and groups that are not necessarily LGBTQ+ focused, but are led by queer and trans BIPOC who are leading inherently from an intersectional perspective. (We understand that because of racism queer and trans folks of color may not have found space within the larger LGBTQ+ movement to do this work. As part of Pride Foundation’s racial equity work, we recognize the importance of expanding how LGBTQ+ advocacy and movement building looks in communities of color.) 
  3. Smaller, grassroots, and who don’t have access to mainstream funding sources, especially organizations and groups that are focusing on issues that are impacting LGBTQ+ folks at the intersection of social identities, including work that is focused on:
    1. Supporting and decriminalizing sex workers 
    2. Incarceration/criminal injustice and restorative justice
    3. Immigration 
    4. Healing Justice
    5. Disability Justice
    6. Housing and homelessness 
    7. Senior and elder support
    8. Youth support (particularly BIPOC youth and/or youth in rural communities)
    9. Anti-violence
    10. Supporting people living with HIV/AIDS
    11. Working to develop policy on behalf of, and led by, QTBIPOC
    12. Building the leadership of QTBIPOC folks, especially trans women, non-binary/non-conforming/gender diverse folks, immigrants, and disabled folks. 
    13. Climate justice

Are you working to support youth in Washington state?

Your organization may be eligible for a Washington Youth Initiative grant.
Washington Youth Initiative

Frequently Asked Questions

Currently, our Community Grants Program doesn’t have an open application process. We will provide further updates on this process in early 2023. We encourage groups and organizations that are interested in applying for funding from Pride Foundation to check out our Community Care Fund, and learn more about why we don’t currently have an application for our Community Grants Program.

Contact Craig Williams, Pride Foundation Program Operations Manager, at craig@pridefoundation.org to request a copy.

Funding for our Community Grants program is a pool of resources that comes from our fundraising efforts each year. This includes both restricted and unrestricted donations from individuals, specific area of interest funds set up by donors (living and passed), and business and institutional partners who trust Pride Foundation to make decisions about awarding grants. Area of interest funds are set up to address specific issues and causes, and focus on funding organizations and groups who support people living with HIV/AIDS and organizations supporting LGBTQ+ youth, especially BIPOC youth, youth living in rural communities, and youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Right now, we can only make grant awards to organizations who are a 501c3 or who are fiscally sponsored by a 501c3. We are working to develop a system that will allow us to make grants to groups who are not fiscally sponsored or have 501c3 status. Please reach out to us if you are in this situation so we can figure out if there are any options to consider in the meantime.

Our Grantees

Learn more about the impact our grantees are making across the Northwest. 

Meet Our Grantees »

 

Questions?

Please don’t hesitate to connect with Craig Williams, Programs Operations Manager.

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